I would be interested in getting JohnT's take on this as he seems to have a lot of experience with this.

Although #8 is heavier than #12, I'm not convinced that it too would not be able to handle the current from a lightning hit. Lightning rods use #4 so I suspect that the pool bonding connections do not take lightning into consideration.

In an earlier post, JohnT talked about not grounding a circuit at more than one point. I understand the concept of current flowing through earth in this case but I don't know what the implications are.

I'm just trying to understand the concepts so since this thread started with a discussion about codes for wiring it seems appropriate to do so.

Peter